Are std::vector elements guaranteed to be contiguous?

Question

My question is simple: are std::vector elements guaranteed to be contiguous? In order word, can I use the pointer to the first element of a std::vector as a C-array?

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Answer 1

The standard does in fact guarantee that a vector is continuous in memory and that &a[0] can be passed to a C function that expects an array.

The exception to this rule is vector which only uses one bit per bool thus although it does have continuous memory it can't be used as a bool* (this is widely considered to be a false optimization and a mistake).

BTW, why don't you use iterators? That's what they're for.